Williams Ford Texas A And M University Military History

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Americans All!

Author : Nancy Gentile Ford
Publisher : Texas A&M University Press
ISBN 13 : 1603443290
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (34 download)

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Book Synopsis Americans All! by : Nancy Gentile Ford

Download or read book Americans All! written by Nancy Gentile Ford and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the First World War, nearly half a million immigrant draftees from forty-six different nations served in the U.S. Army. This surge of Old World soldiers challenged the American military's cultural, linguistic, and religious traditions and required military leaders to reconsider their training methods for the foreign-born troops. How did the U.S. War Department integrate this diverse group into a united fighting force?The war department drew on the experiences of progressive social welfare reformers, who worked with immigrants in urban settlement houses, and they listened to industrial efficiency experts, who connected combat performance to morale and personnel management. Perhaps most significantly, the military enlisted the help of ethnic community leaders, who assisted in training, socializing, and Americanizing immigrant troops and who pressured the military to recognize and meet the important cultural and religious needs of the ethnic soldiers. These community leaders negotiated the Americanization process by promoting patriotism and loyalty to the United States while retaining key ethnic cultural traditions.Offering an exciting look at an unexplored area of military history, Americans All! Foreign-born Soldiers in World War I constitutes a work of special interest to scholars in the fields of military history, sociology, and ethnic studies. Ford'sresearch illuminates what it meant for the U.S. military to reexamine early twentieth-century nativism; instead of forcing soldiers into a melting pot, war department policies created an atmosphere that made both American and ethnic pride acceptable.During the war, a German officer commented on the ethnic diversity of the American army and noted, with some amazement, that these "semi-Americans" considered themselves to be "true-born sons of their adopted country." The officer was wrong on one count. The immigrant soldiers were not "semi-Americans"; they were "Americans all!"

Testing American Sea Power

Author : Craig C. Felker
Publisher : Texas A&M University Press
ISBN 13 : 1603449892
Total Pages : 204 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (34 download)

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Book Synopsis Testing American Sea Power by : Craig C. Felker

Download or read book Testing American Sea Power written by Craig C. Felker and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2013-03-28 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Pacific Theater in World War II depended on American sea power. This power was refined between 1923 and 1940, when the U.S. Navy held twenty-one major fleet exercises designed to develop strategy and allow officers to enact plans in an operational setting. Prior to 1923, naval officers relied heavily on the theories of Capt. Alfred Thayer Mahan, who argued that sea control was vital to military victory, best attained through use of the battleship. Fleet exercises, however, allowed valuable practice with other military resources and theories. As a direct result of these exercises, the navy incorporated different technologies and updated its own outdated strategies. Although World War II brought unforeseen challenges and the disadvantages of simulation exercises quickly became apparent, fleet "problems" may have opened the door to different ideas that allowed the U.S Navy ultimately to succeed. Testing American Sea Power challenges the conventional wisdom that Mahanian theory held the American Navy in a steel grip. Felker's research and analysis, the first to concentrate on the navy's interwar exercises, will make a valuable contribution to naval history for historians, military professionals, and naval instructors.

War Machines

Author : Timothy Moy
Publisher : Texas A&M University Press
ISBN 13 : 9781585441044
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (41 download)

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Book Synopsis War Machines by : Timothy Moy

Download or read book War Machines written by Timothy Moy and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The American military establishment is intimately tied to its technology, although the nature of those ties has varied enormously from service to service. The air force evokes images of pilots operating hightech weapons systems, striking precisely from out of the blue to lay waste to enemy installations. The fundamental icon for the Marine Corps is a wave of riflemen hitting the beaches from rugged landing craft and slogging their way ashore under enemy fire. How did these very different relationships with technology develop? During the interwar years, from 1920 to 1940, leaders from the Army Air Corps and the Marine Corps recreated their agencies based on visions of new military technologies. In War Machines, Timothy Moy examines these recreations and explores how factors such as bureaucratic pressure, institutional culture, and America's technological enthusiasm shaped these leaders' choices. The very existence of the Army Air Corps was based on a new technology, the airplane. As the Air Corps was forced to compete for money and other resources during the years after World War I, Air Corps leaders carved out a military niche based on hightech precision bombing. The Marine Corps focused on amphibious, firstwave assault using sturdy, graceless, and easytoproduce landing craft. Moy's astute analysis makes it clear that studying the processes that shaped the Army Air Corps and Marine Corps is fundamental to our understanding of technology and the military at the beginning of the twentyfirst century.

Women Doctors in War

Author : Judith Bellafaire
Publisher : Texas A&M University Press
ISBN 13 : 1603441468
Total Pages : 270 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (34 download)

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Book Synopsis Women Doctors in War by : Judith Bellafaire

Download or read book Women Doctors in War written by Judith Bellafaire and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2009-10-27 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In their efforts to utilize their medical skills and training in the service of their country, women physicians fought not one but two male-dominated professional hierarchies: the medical and the military establishments. In the process, they also contended with powerful social pressures and constraints. Throughout Women Doctors in War, the authors focus on the medical careers, aspirations, and struggles of individual women, using personal stories to illustrate the unique professional and personal challenges female military physicians have faced. Military and medical historians and scholars in women’s studies will discover a wealth of new information in Women Doctors in War.

Carved from Granite

Author : Lance Betros
Publisher : Texas A&M University Press
ISBN 13 : 1603447873
Total Pages : 483 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (34 download)

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Book Synopsis Carved from Granite by : Lance Betros

Download or read book Carved from Granite written by Lance Betros and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2012-04-23 with total page 483 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States Military Academy at West Point is one of America’s oldest and most revered institutions. Founded in 1802, its first and only mission is to prepare young men—and, since 1976, young women—to be leaders of character for service as commissioned officers in the United States Army. West Point’s success in accomplishing that mission has secured its reputation as the foremost leadership-development institution in the world. An Academy promotional poster says it this way: “At West Point, much of the history we teach was made by people we taught.” Carved from Granite is the story of how West Point goes about producing military leaders of character. An opening chapter on the Academy’s nineteenth-century history provides context for the topic of each subsequent chapter. As scholar and Academy graduate Lance Betros shows, West Point’s early history is interesting and colorful, but its history since then is far more relevant to the issues—and problems—that face the Academy today. Drawing from oral histories, archival sources, and his own experiences as a cadet and, later, a faculty member, Betros describes and assesses how well West Point has accomplished its mission. And, while West Point is an impressive institution in many ways, Betros does not hesitate to expose problems and challenge long-held assumptions. In a concluding chapter that is both subjective and interpretive, the author offers his prescriptions for improving the institution, focusing particularly on the areas of governance, admissions, and intercollegiate athletics. Photographs, tables, charts, and other graphics aid the clarity of the discussion and lend visual and historical interest. Carved from Granite: West Point since 1902 is the most authoritative history of the modern United States Military Academy written to date. There will be lively debate over some of the observations made in this book, but if they are followed, the author asserts that the Academy will emerge stronger and better able to accomplish its vital mission in the new century and beyond.

Tales of a Cold War Submariner

Author : Dan Summitt
Publisher : Texas A&M University Press
ISBN 13 : 9781585444144
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (441 download)

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Book Synopsis Tales of a Cold War Submariner by : Dan Summitt

Download or read book Tales of a Cold War Submariner written by Dan Summitt and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2004-08-24 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the Second World War, Dan Summitt cruised the China Sea in a destroyer. During the Cold War, he worked with Adm. Hyman Rickover and commanded two nuclear submarines. In Tales of a Cold War Submariner, Summitt tells the dramatic story of his military life on and under the sea, focusing on his experiences with nuclear submarines and Admiral Rickover, “the father of the nuclear navy.” His stories, anecdotes, and detailed descriptions bring this tense era to life for the reader. Summitt recounts his service as commander of the USS Seadragon on its secret mission to the North Pole, where he rendezvoused with the USS Skate to conduct experiments under the ice. Following a posting to Naval Reactors, Summit then took command of the USS Alexander Hamilton, one of forty-one Polaris submarines in the U.S. fleet. A submarine of this class was 425 feet long and carried sixteen Polaris missiles, each 35 feet high and weighing 35,000 pounds. Summitt takes the reader on a tour of the spacious vessel, describing everything from its living quarters to practice missile launches to the coveralls worn by the crew. He recounts Christmas at the Duke of Argyle’s castle, discusses the difficulties of steering with a single propeller, and describes how the Alexander Hamilton was almost lost because of a faulty needle piston in the snorkel head valve cylinder, a reminder that even the most sophisticated machine can be undone by a simple mechanical failure. In the best tradition of naval literature, Summitt’s memoir offers a first-person view of life in the navy during a crucial period in our history. Readers will enjoy weighing anchor with Captain Summitt, and scholars will find his memoir an important contribution to the literature on the U.S. Navy and the Cold War.

Mighty Stonewall

Author : Frank E. Vandiver
Publisher : Texas A&M University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780890963913
Total Pages : 572 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (639 download)

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Book Synopsis Mighty Stonewall by : Frank E. Vandiver

Download or read book Mighty Stonewall written by Frank E. Vandiver and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 1989 with total page 572 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a comprehensive biography of Confederate General Thomas J. Jackson and traces his life and military career from his childhood and entrance into West Point, years of teaching at the Virginia Military Institute, Civil War campaigns, and death after the Battle of Chancellorsville in May of 1963.

Hospital at War

Author : Zachary Friedenberg
Publisher : Texas A&M University Press
ISBN 13 : 1585443794
Total Pages : 169 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (854 download)

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Book Synopsis Hospital at War by : Zachary Friedenberg

Download or read book Hospital at War written by Zachary Friedenberg and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2004-11-09 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During World War II, the army established 107 evacuation hospitals to care for the wounded and sick in theaters around the world. An evacuation hospital was a forward hospital accepting patients from the battlefield. It was where the wounded first received definitive care. Formed at Camp Breckenridge, the 95th Evac arrived in Casablanca in April 1943, with seven thousand troops, thirty doctors, and forty nurses. First pitching their tents at Oujda, they moved eastward toward Algeria before making a D-day landing on the beaches of Salerno, Italy, on September 9, 1939. Shortly thereafter, they entered Naples, then set up shop at Anzio before moving on to become the first American hospital to penetrate Nazi-occupied Europe. After the guns were silent, records show that these doctors and nurses had treated over 42,000 Americans in almost all the critical battles of the European theater: Salerno, Monetcassino, Anzio, southern France, the Battle of the Bulge, the Rhineland, and finally, the invasion into Germany. Hospital at War is the story of the 95th Evac Hospital as told by Zachary Friedenberg, a young surgeon at the time, fresh out of his internship. He tells the story of how the men and women of the 95th survived the war. He describes how they solved problems and learned to treat the war-wounded in the extreme heat of North Africa and during the frigid winters of the Rhineland. He tells how they endured shelling and a bombing of the hospital and how they adjusted to the people and the countries in which they worked. By the end of their two-year tour of duty, the men and women of the 95th Evac were superbly efficient. A casualty who made it to their facilities had a 99 percent chance of surviving. For anyone who wants to know how so many of our boys made it home despite horrific injuries, this book provides part of the answer.

The US Army and the Texas Frontier Economy

Author : Thomas T. Smith
Publisher : Texas A&M University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780890968826
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (688 download)

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Book Synopsis The US Army and the Texas Frontier Economy by : Thomas T. Smith

Download or read book The US Army and the Texas Frontier Economy written by Thomas T. Smith and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seventy million dollars in fifty-five years. From Texas' annexation in 1845 until the turn of the twentieth century, the U.S. Army pumped at least that much or more into the economy of the fledgling state, a fact that directly challenges the popular heritage of Texas as the state with roots of pioneer capitalism and fervent independence. In The U.S. Army and the Texas Frontier Economy, 1845-1900, Thomas T. Smith sheds light on just who bankrolled the evolution of Texas into viable statehood. Smith draws on extensive research gathered from both government archives and Texas army posts in order to evaluate the symbiotic relationship between army quartermasters and the economy of the young state. Texas was the army's largest--and most costly--engagement, absorbing up to thirty percent of the total operating budget and channeling that currency into the commercial development of its frontier. Smith expands on historian Robert Wooster's theory that the military was engaged in an alliance with the political authority in Texas, and using documents such as army contracts for freighting, foraging, and fort leasing, he illustrates how federal fiscal activity spurred commercial growth for the citizens of Texas. Besides the obvious development of towns on the skirts of military bases and of roads between them, the establishment of military spending as a bedrock of the Texas economy and the protector of middle class interests shaped the future of the state's commercial prosperity. Writing with exceptional detail and clarity, Smith traces the emergence of the army's influence and includes analyses of information on army spending and development such as the introduction of army weather and telegraph services to the state, as well as accounts of real estate transactions involving the fort building program. Smith also accounts for army failures, maintaining that no one was truly prepared for the reality of western expansion. As an examination of the complex yet mutually beneficial economic relationship between the nation and the state, The U.S. Army and the Texas Frontier Economy, 1845-1900 is ideal for anyone interested in the early days of the state as well as in U.S. military and frontier history.

The Chaplain's Conflict

Author : Tennant McWilliams
Publisher : Texas A&M University Press
ISBN 13 : 1603446893
Total Pages : 153 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (34 download)

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Book Synopsis The Chaplain's Conflict by : Tennant McWilliams

Download or read book The Chaplain's Conflict written by Tennant McWilliams and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2012-04-23 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As chaplain for the US Army's 102nd Evacuation Hospital in the European Theater, Renwick C. Kennedy--"Ren" to those who knew him--witnessed great courage, extreme talent, and many lives snatched from the precipice of death, all under the most trying conditions. He also observed drug and alcohol abuse, prejudice, narrow-mindedness, and chronic depression. What he saw, he chronicled in his journal, and what he wrote, he processed with an intellectual and ethical rigor born of his remarkably sophisticated worldview and his deeply held Christian faith. With Kennedy's war diaries and postwar articles published in Christian Century and Time magazines in front of him, historian Tennant McWilliams spent a year retracing every step, every turn, every location of the 102nd in wartime France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany, compiling rich detail on this episode in Kennedy's life. McWilliams's interviews with citizens of France and Luxembourg who recall the 102nd further revealed local people's reactions to the army hospital that illuminated both Kennedy's severe criticism and his enduring praise for evac life. The result is a candid view of what went on in the World War II evac hospitals. With a nuanced and gritty style, The Chaplain's Conflict shatters the self-interested and sometimes sentimental images of evacs held by some among the medical community. This complex and compelling observation of doctors practicing war-zone medicine in World War II will hold great appeal for readers of military and medical history, as well as those interested in the socio-cultural, ethical, and religious implications of war and military service.

The Hump

Author : John D. Plating
Publisher : Texas A&M University Press
ISBN 13 : 1603442375
Total Pages : 346 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (34 download)

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Book Synopsis The Hump by : John D. Plating

Download or read book The Hump written by John D. Plating and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2011-02-08 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicling the most ambitious airlift in history . . . Carried out over arguably the world’s most rugged terrain, in its most inhospitable weather system, and under the constant threat of enemy attack, the trans-Himalayan airlift of World War II delivered nearly 740,000 tons of cargo to China, making it possible for Chinese forces to wage war against Japan. This operation dwarfed the supply delivery by land over the Burma and Ledo Roads and represented the fullest expression of the U.S. government’s commitment to China. In this groundbreaking work—the first concentrated historical study of the world’s first sustained combat airlift operation—John D. Plating argues that the Hump airlift was initially undertaken to serve as a display of American support for its Chinese ally, which had been at war with Japan since 1937. However, by 1944, with the airlift’s capability gaining momentum, American strategists shifted the purpose of air operations to focus on supplying American forces in China in preparation for the U.S.’s final assault on Japan. From the standpoint of war materiel, the airlift was the precondition that made possible all other allied military action in the China-Burma-India theater, where Allied troops were most commonly inserted, supplied, and extracted by air. Drawing on extensive research that includes Chinese and Japanese archives, Plating tells a spellbinding story in a context that relates it to the larger movements of the war and reveals its significance in terms of the development of military air power. The Hump demonstrates the operation’s far-reaching legacy as it became the example and prototype of the Berlin Airlift, the first air battle of the Cold War. The Hump operation also bore significantly on the initial moves of the Chinese Civil War, when Air Transport Command aircraft moved entire armies of Nationalist troops hundreds of miles in mere days in order to prevent Communist forces from being the ones to accept the Japanese surrender.

The Army in Texas During Reconstruction, 1865-1870

Author : William Lee Richter
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis The Army in Texas During Reconstruction, 1865-1870 by : William Lee Richter

Download or read book The Army in Texas During Reconstruction, 1865-1870 written by William Lee Richter and published by . This book was released on 1987 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One Texan called them "blue-coated dogs of despotism." They were the federal army, and in Texas after the Civil War they were an army of occupation. Their role in carrying out Reconstruction in Texas was especially difficult because the state had a large voting majority of white former Confederates. The army was essential to the enforcement of loyalist policies and, more controversially, to the electoral success of the Republican party. How the military tried to achieve these ends varied over three major periods corresponding to the tenure of three chief officers: Generals Philip H. Sheridan, Charles Griffin, and Joseph J. Reynolds. Internal rivalries, the ability (or inability) to work with citizens, relations with state political leaders, and Texan hostility toward central authority all figured into the army's performance of its task. William Richter has mined much unused material in developing this uniquely thorough study of the military in Texas. Moving beyond the good-guy, bad-guy stereotypes, he demonstrates that the army was more competent and important than traditional Reconstruction history has taught. In spite of minimal numbers, the army exercised great political influence and left a legacy--and a reaction to that legacy--that largely shaped the post-Reconstruction constitution and party structure of the state and that "provided a convenient excuse for the denial of justice and equality to blacks without forcing whites to face up to the racism which made these goals unpalatable."

The Two Thousand Yard Stare

Author : Brendan M. Greeley
Publisher : Texas A&M University Press
ISBN 13 : 9781603440080
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (4 download)

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Book Synopsis The Two Thousand Yard Stare by : Brendan M. Greeley

Download or read book The Two Thousand Yard Stare written by Brendan M. Greeley and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "El Paso artist Tom Lea was commissioned by Life Magazine to paint the war as it was being experienced by U.S. and Allied soldiers, sailors, and airmen. Along with his sketchbook, Lea carried on these assignments his "record of work", a notebook in which he recorded observations and details on the images he hoped to create from the events he had seen." "Brendan M. Greeley, Jr. has collected virtually all of Tom Lea's firsthand accounts of his assignments for Life, along with his powerful sketches and unforgettable paintings, and placed them in context, along with photographs and research focusing on the people, places, and wartime events encountered by Tom Lea. Drawing on previously unpublished sources - the artist's diary, letters to the Texas historian J. Frank. Dobie, oral interviews, and archival materials from Texas and national collections - Greeley presents in The Two Thousand Yard Stare a uniquely comprehensive and sustained treatment of Lea's creative accomplishments during World War II." "This well-documented and astonishingly illustrated volume will fascinate those interested in the realistic depiction of war, in both images and words. Also a must-read for students, scholars, and collectors of the artist's work, The Two Thousand Yard Stare: Tom Lea's World War II is a brilliant compendium of the work and thought of one of America's most compelling painters and writers."--BOOK JACKET.

Blue & Gold and Black

Author : Robert John Schneller
Publisher : Texas A&M University Press
ISBN 13 : 1603444173
Total Pages : 458 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (34 download)

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Book Synopsis Blue & Gold and Black by : Robert John Schneller

Download or read book Blue & Gold and Black written by Robert John Schneller and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the twentieth century, the U.S. Naval Academy evolved from a racist institution to one that ranked equal opportunity among its fundamental tenets. This transformation was not without its social cost, however, and black midshipmen bore the brunt of it. Blue & Gold and Black is the history of integration of African Americans into the Naval Academy. The book examines how civil rights advocates? demands for equal opportunity shaped the Naval Academy?s evolution. Author Robert J. Schneller Jr. analyzes how changes in the Academy?s policies and culture affected the lives of black midshipmen, as well as how black midshipmen effected change in the Academy?s policies and culture. Most institutional history is written from the top down, while most social history is written from the bottom up. Based on the documentary record as well as on the memories of hundreds of midshipmen and naval officers, Blue & Gold and Black includes both perspectives. By examining both the institution and the individual, a much more accurate picture emerges of how racial integration occurred at the Naval Academy. Schneller takes a biographical approach to social history. Through written correspondence, responses to questionnaires, memoirs, and oral histories, African American midshipmen recount their experiences in their own words. Rather than setting adrift their humanity and individuality in oceans of statistics, Schneller uses their first-hand recollections to provide insights into the Academy?s culture that cannot be gained from official records. Covering the Jim Crow era, the civil rights movement, and the empowerment of African Americans from the late 1960s through the end of the twentieth century, Blue & Gold and Black traces the transformation of an institution that produces men and women who lead not only the Navy, but also the nation.

Flying MacArthur to Victory

Author : Weldon E. Rhoades
Publisher : Reveille Books
ISBN 13 : 9780890969977
Total Pages : 584 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (699 download)

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Book Synopsis Flying MacArthur to Victory by : Weldon E. Rhoades

Download or read book Flying MacArthur to Victory written by Weldon E. Rhoades and published by Reveille Books. This book was released on 1987-12-01 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “I shall return!” It was the most memorable phrase of the war for the Pacific in the 1940s. For many people, Gen. Douglas A. MacArthur’s vow to recapture the Philippines and the footage of him wading ashore with the troops were all that was needed to characterize him as egotistical and severe. Flying MacArthur to Victory is the World War II diary of the general’s personal pilot, Weldon E. (“Dusty”) Rhoades. Rhoades’s days as a transport pilot ended when he got the assignment to deliver documents marked “For MacArthur’s Eyes Only.” After the documents changed hands the general invited Rhoades to be the personal pilot of the Pacific theater’s commander in chief. From that day in October, 1943, until his discharge in January, 1946, Rhoades not only had a front-row seat for confrontations and strategic discussions between MacArthur and his chief of staff, Gen. Richard K. Sutherland, but also witnessed their behavior in the private shadow of their awesome responsibilities. The World War II diary of Gen. Douglas A. MacArthur's personal pilot, Weldon E. Rhoades, chronicles the daily hardships of the world's most all-encompassing war. Rhoades's front-row observations show military personnel performing their duties under the stress generated from a cycle of intense activity, unbearable boredom, frustration, and always, the pain of separation from loved ones. Here also are the dramatic confrontations, strategic discussions, and off-camera personality of one of history's most powerful generals, a man often branded by the public as egotistical and severe.

Danger Close

Author : Steve Call
Publisher : Texas A&M University Press
ISBN 13 : 1603441425
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (34 download)

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Book Synopsis Danger Close by : Steve Call

Download or read book Danger Close written by Steve Call and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2010-01-15 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “America had a secret weapon,” writes Steve Call of the period immediately following September 11, 2001, as planners contemplated the invasion of Afghanistan. This weapon consisted of small teams of Special Forces operatives trained in close air support (CAS) who, in cooperation with the loose federation of Afghan rebels opposed to the Taliban regime, soon began achieving impressive—and unexpected—military victories over Taliban forces and the al-Qaeda terrorists they had sponsored. The astounding success of CAS tactics coupled with ground operations in Afghanistan soon drew the attention of military decision makers and would eventually factor into the planning for another campaign: Operation Iraqi Freedom. But who, exactly, are these air power experts and what is the function of the TACPs (Tactical Air Control Parties) in which they operate? Danger Close provides a fascinating look at a dedicated, courageous, innovative, and often misunderstood and misused group of military professionals. Drawing on the gripping first-hand accounts of their battlefield experiences, Steve Call allows the TACPs to speak for themselves. He accompanies their narratives with informed analysis of the development of CAS strategy, including potentially controversial aspects of the interservice rivalries between the air force and the army which have at times complicated and even obstructed the optimal employment of TACP assets. Danger Close makes clear, however, that the systematic coordination of air power and ground forces played an invaluable supporting role in the initial military victories in both Afghanistan and Iraq. This first-ever examination of the intense, life-and-death world of the close air support specialist will introduce readers to a crucial but little-known aspect of contemporary warfare and add a needed chapter in American military history studies.

Australia's Vietnam War

Author : Jeff Doyle
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Australia's Vietnam War by : Jeff Doyle

Download or read book Australia's Vietnam War written by Jeff Doyle and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today the mere mention of Vietnam conjures up images of protest in American streets and tensions so strong they divided a country. Yet the United States did not fight alone. Comparatively little is known about Australia's experience-its motives for entering the conflict, national support for Australia's role there, and how that nation dealt with the aftermath of war. Here, Jeff Doyle, Jeffrey Grey, and Peter Pierce chronicle Australia's complicated involvement in Vietnam. Australia's decision to participate in the conflict was part of a collective Western effort to stop Communist expansion. It was also a price willingly paid for assurances of American intervention in the event of an Indonesian attack on Australia. Through an evaluation of the literature arising from Vietnam, the manner in which Australia memorialized its fallen veterans, and other expressions of the war's influences, this book offers important insights into the healing process nations face following such conflicts.